Archives

Category: Notable Zoroastrians

The country honoured Homai Vyarawalla with a Padma Vibhushan in 2010 (Source: Google Doodle)

Homai Vyarawalla is India’s first woman photojournalist whose lens earned her a reputation for the candid shots of India’s independence movement, the first tri-colour hoisting, the death of Mahatma Gandhi, and others which become a part of national archives. Today, google doodle in its portrait featured Homai Vyarawalla to mark her 104th birth anniversary.

Born in 1913 in a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat, Vyarawalla’s childhood was spent on various places as her father worked in a travelling theater company. Besides completing her education from Bombay University and Sir JJ School of Art, she started taking snaps of daily life of mumbaikers and in this way become a professional photographer.

Vyarawalla at her house in Mumbai (Express Photo/Bhupendra Rana/File)

During the turbulent time of second world war in 1942, Vyarawalla got a job at the British Information Services in New Delhi, and also started working with the Bombay-based ‘The Illustrated Weekly of India’ magazine where many of her black and white images were published that became iconic later.

Vyarawalla before receving the Padma Vibhushan award at a function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan (Express Photo/Praveen Jain/File)

The photographs that she clicked were published under the pseudonym ‘Dalda 13’. This number was symbolic as her birth year was 1913, when she was 13-years-old she met her husband and her first car’s registration number was DLD 13.

A year after her husband’s death in 1973, Homai Vyarawalla quit photography and lived alone in Vadodara, Gujarat. In the year 1989, she lost her son and only child. The country honoured her with a Padma Vibhushan in 2010. The iconic lady’s journey came to an end on January 15, 2012.

Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday or Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated every year on 2nd October. This year it will be his 148th. As Father Of The Nation, Gandhiji is immortalized for his leadership in India’s freedom struggle. However, very few are aware of the contributions of the Parsi community to Gandhiji’s struggle for India’s Independence…

Dadabhai Naoroji
On 4th September 1888, Gandhi sailed from Bombay to London with three letters of introduction. One of them was written by a noted Maharashtrian medical practitioner introducing the then relatively unknown Gandhi to the Grand Old Man of India. Gandhi was so much in awe of Dadabhai that he felt uncomfortable approaching him without a letter of introduction. The good doctor however told him, “You need no introduction to him. Your being an Indian is sufficient introduction. But you are a youngster, unraveled and timid. This letter will give you courage enough to go to the Grand Old Man”.

Later Gandhi acknowledged, “I soon found that Indian students had free access to the Grand Old Man at all hours of the day. Indeed, he was in the place of father to every one of them, no matter to which province or religion they belonged.” Dadabhai was a regular source of advice and inspiration to Gandhi, particularly when the latter was in South Africa. They exchanged hand written letters almost every week. Gandhi was candid enough to say, “I have always been a hero-worshipper and Dadabhai became real Dada to me.”

In one of Gandhiji’s letters to Dadabhai he wrote, “I am yet inexperienced and young and therefore prone to make mistakes.” He said that the responsibility that he had undertaken was out of proportion to his ability. However, he said that just as Dadabhai was fighting for the rights of Indians in England, he was fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa, and in this he requested Dadabhai to kindly guide and advise him and make suggestions, which Gandhiji said, he would follow as advice coming from a father to a son.

According to R P Masani, Gandhi is “the apostolic heir and successor to the place occupied by Dadabhai in the heart of the people of India.” Coincidentally in South Mumbai, Mahatma Gandhi or MG Road begins where Dadabhai Naoroji or DN Road ends. Indeed, the true test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and will to carry on.

.

Parsee Rustomjee (Ghorkhodoo)
Parsee Rustomjee was the first friend that Mahatma Gandhi made when he was in South Africa. Rustomjee was a founder member of Natal Indian Congress and it was this Parsi who gave shelter to the young Mohandas Gandhi on 13th January 1897, when he was attacked by a European mob in Durban. But for Rustomjee, Gandhi could have died in Durban. But, Gandhi had a destiny in and for India and Rustomjee played a crucial role in ensuring that, as one of the best supporters of South Africa Satyagraha during 1907 to 1914. As a revolutionary he was also sentenced to jail.

Mithuben Petit and the Captain Sisters
Mithu Petit and the Captain Sisters — Perin, Goshi and Khurshid – were active in the freedom movement, and a great source of strength to Gandhi. Born on 11 April 1892, Mithu was the daughter of the affluent Sir Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, well-known industrialist of his time. Young Mithu was influenced by her maternal aunt who was a follower of Gandhi, and Secretary of the Rashtriya Stree Sabha.

Mithuben as she was called by Gandhi, along with Kasturba Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu, played a major part in the Salt March with Kasturba Gandhi beginning the march at Sabarmati, with Sarojini Naidu picking up the salt for the first time at Dandi on 6th April, 1930 and Mithuben standing in support right behind Gandhi.
The march was one of the most important events in the Indian independence movement. Mithuben also participated in the Bardoli Satyagraha of 1928 which was a no-tax campaign against the British Raj where she worked under the guidance of Sardar Patel.

Mithu also set up an ashram in Maroli called Kasturba Vanat Shala which taught underprivileged children from families of Adivasis, Harijans and fisher folk, spinning, carding, weaving, dairy farming, leather-work and a Diploma Course in Sewing, to make the women self-sufficient. She also established a hospital by the same name for the treatment of mentally ill patients.

Ardeshir Godrej
In 1926 Ardeshir Godrej, one of the founders of the Godrej Group, contributed a sum of three lakhs rupees for the uplift of Harijans (considered untouchables at the time). This was a time when donations of such scale were unheard of. Mahatma Gandhi acknowledged this donation as the largest contribution to that cause and a particularly important one for him.

.

Excerpts from Gandhiji’s addressed to the Parsis (published in Young India dated 23-3-1921)
Apart from your being fellow-countrymen, I am bound to you by many sacred ties. Dadabhai (Dadabhai Naoroji) was the first patriot to inspire me. He was my guide and helper when I did not know any other leader. It was to him that I bore, when yet a boy, a letter of introduction.

It was the late uncrowned king of Bombay, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta who led me in 1896 and showed me the way to work. It was he who, (when I wanted battle a Political Agent as far back as 1892), restrained my youthful ardour and taught me the first practical lesson in ahimsa in public life. He taught me not to resent personal wrongs if I would serve India.

A Parsi merchant in Durban, Rustomjee Ghorkhodoo, was among my most valued clients and friends in South Africa. He gave freely to public causes, and he and his brave son were the first among my fellow prisoners. He gave me shelter when I was lynched, and now, too, he is following the swaraj movement with considerable interest and has just donated Rs. 40,000/- to it.

In my humble opinion, probably the first woman in India today is a Parsi woman (presumably Gandhiji refers to Mrs. Jaijee Petit, wife of Jehangir Bomanjee Petit) gentle as a lamb, with a heart that holds the whole of humanity. To have her friendship is the rarest privilege of life.”

Such was the influence that Parsis had on Gandhi!

Little wonder, he is believed to have said about the Parsis, “In numbers Parsis are beneath contempt, but in contribution, beyond compare!”

Homi Jehangir Bhaba is still called as the Father of Indian Nuclear Research. One of the greatest scholar and researcher of the Nuclear Physics of the world, Bhaba ensured that India is on the right path of achieving success in the field of science and technology. Today, we need the determination and commitment like him to excel more in the field of science. He is still a celebrity, a Real Celebrity.

His Early Days of Education and Research

Homi Jehangir Bhaba was born in the then Bombay in 1909 on 30th October. He was born and raised in a wealthy Parsi family. His father Jehangir Hormusji Bhaba was a prominent lawyer and his uncle Dorabji Tata was an influential businessperson even in the British India. He completed his education in Mumbai and went to Cambridge for further studies. He received his doctorate after his research on “The Absorption of Cosmic Radiation”. This was a key Nuclear Physics research that explained the absorption features of the cosmic rays and also the phenomena called the Electron Shower. However, his paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series A was even more prominent in the Nuclear Physics. He was the first person who formulated the calculation of the electron position scattering. This was again in the field of Cosmic rays and electron showering. The phenomenon of the Electron Position Scattering is now known as the Bhaba Scattering in the Nuclear Physics in honour of him.

Homi Jehangir Bhaba, the Father of Indian Nuclear Programme

Bhaba came back to India before the outbreak of World War II and settled thereafter. He joined Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. This institute was headed by another Real Celebrity, the great Scientist C V Raman. He then established the Cosmic Ray Research Centre at the Institute. But the visionary scientist never stopped by the lack of resources. He, in fact, started the research on Nuclear Weapon back in 1944 by his own. In 1945 he became the founder and director of the newly established Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. Soon after the Indian Independence, he became the Go-To man for the Indian Nuclear Mission and became the first chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India in 1948. He was also the founder of the Tromboy Atomic Energy Establishment which was later renamed as Bhaba Atomic Research Centre.

His intellect and knowledge on the Nuclear Research made him the President of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in 1955. He became the first person who started lobbying for Nuclear Weapon in India and made all the possible attempts to make India a Nuclear Country.

Death

Homi J Bhaba died in an unfortunate plane crash in Mont Blanc in France when he was going to Austria for an Atomic Energy in Vienna. There are various theories about his death. The said theory of his death was the miscommunication between the Geneva Airport and the driver. However, there are theories that CIA killed him to stop the nuclear program.

Homi J Bhaba laid the foundation of Nuclear Program and Research and contributed a large for the Indian Science.

Mahtab Bamji, a noted scientist, has been selected to receive the Living Legend Award of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences ((IUNS).

In a communique, the IUNS said the award will be presented at its General Assembly to be held at the IUNS-ICN in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 18.

The IUNS Council presents Living Legend Awards to individual members of Adhering Bodies in good standing who are eighty (80) years or above, the communique from the Secretary General Catherine Geissler said.

The award is a recognition for those who have significantly contributed to the work of national nutrition society or regional organisation and contributed to the advancement of nutrition at national, regional and global level through professional activities such as research, teaching, services.

A former Director-grade scientist of the Hyderabad-based, National Institute of Nutrition, the 82-year old Bamji is associated with the Dangoriya Charitable Trust. She contributes to the efforts of the trust to help improve the nutrition and health status of poor farmers and villagers in Narsapuram on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Bamji is a honorary scientist of the Indian National Science Academy. She contributed to various national projects directed to reducing malnutrition and improving nutrition status during her long stint at NIN.

From JRD Tata to Sam Manekshaw, these 15 Parsis played a key role in shaping modern India

The Parsi community has been at the forefront of many social and economic reforms in India. Their history in India can be traced back to the 8th century when they migrated from Persia (Iran) to the Indian shores to avoid persecution from Arab conquests in their homeland. They are known for their adherence to Zoroastrian faith and are a very close-knit community. However, their numbers have dwindled over time and as per the latest estimate, there are nearly 69,000 Parsis in India. Despite being small in number, Parsis are the most economically sturdy and educated community in India. From being entrepreneurs and legal luminaries to serving in the army, Parsis are known to lead by example.

Here we have compiled a list of 15 of the most famous Parsis in India.

1) Fali S Nariman:

Indian Express

An eminent lawyer and constitutional scholar, Nariman had been a counsel in several high-profile cases. A recipient of the Padma Vibhushan (2007) and Padma Bhushan (1991), Nariman’s contribution to jurisprudence and public affairs is unmatched. Born in a Parsi Family, Nariman completed his BA in Economics and History from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and thereafter got his law degree from Government Law College in 1929. He also served as Additional Solicitor General of India from May 1972 to June 25, 1975, however, he quit the post upon declaration of Emergency.

2) Ratan Tata:

Indian Express

Perhaps, the most famous name from Parsi community, Tata was the Chairman of Tata Group, a global business giant, from 1991 to 2012. During his stint, the conglomerate’s revenues grew over 40 times, and profit over 50 times. His tenure also saw the acquisition of tea brand Tetley with Tata Tea, Jaguar Land Rover with Tata Motors and most notably steel giant Corus’s merger with Tata Steel. The 79-year-old was embroiled in a power tussle with Cyrus Mistry who was removed as the chairman of the group last year. Recipient of Padma Vibhushan (2008) and Padma Bhushan (2000), the business magnate continues to head Tata Group’s charitable trusts – Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust – and their allied trusts.

3) JRD Tata:

Indian Express

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata has the rare distinction of being the first licensed pilot of India. A pioneering entrepreneur in his own right, it was under his leadership that several firms emerged from the Tata Group, including Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Titan Industries, Tata Tea and Voltas. He is also the founder of India’s first Airlines Tata Airlines in 1932, which became Air India in 1946. His tenure as Tata Group chairman also saw the group’s assets growing from US$100 million to over US$5 billion. He was also associated with several social welfare initiatives. Under his guidance, Asia’s first Cancer Hospital – Tata Memorial Centre for Cancer, Research and Treatment – was established in 1941. He was awarded India’s highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna, for his humanitarian endeavours.

4) Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw:

Indian Express

Manekshaw was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army during the Indo-Pak war of 1971. In his miltary career that spanned over four decades, he served the army in five wars beginning with World War II under the British Army. Born in Punjab to a Parsi family, his father was also an army man, having served in the British army in the first world war. He was selected as part of the first batch of cadets to attend Indian Military Academy in 1931. He was also the first military officer to attain the rank of Field Marshal. During his stint as COAS, he played a key role in preventing the implementation of reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the army.

5) Homi Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha hailed from an illustrious Parsi family of Mumbai. His father, Jehangir Hormusji Bhabha, was a well-known lawyer. Being a brilliant student, he attended Mumbai’s Elphinstone College at the age of 15. He then attended the Royal Institute of Science and moved to Cambridge University to pursue mechanical engineering and did extensive research on his favourite subject, Physics. He was instrumental in starting India’s nuclear programme. With help of JRD Tata, he played a major role in establishing the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

6) Ardeshir Burzorji Tarapore:

One of the bravest soldiers to serve in the Indian army, Tarapore was awarded the highest gallantry award Param Vir Chakra for his valour and sacrifice in the 1965 Indo-Pak war. During the war, he was in command of the Poona Horse regiment which launched an attack on Phillora in the Sialkot sector, which was met with fierce armour charge by Pak army. His tank was hit several times, which left him wounded but the brave-heart refused to be evacuated. Inspired by his bravery, the regiment attacked the Pakistani armour and destroyed nearly sixty Pakistani Army tanks, suffering only nine tank casualties. Even when he achieved martyrdom, his regiment continued to defy the enemy.

7) Fali Homi Major:

Born on May 29, 1947, in a Parsi family, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major served as the 21st Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force. In his distinguished career spanning nearly four decades, he worked in a variety of Command, Staff and Instructional appointments. With a flying experience of 7,765 hours, Major oversaw several dangerous missions. His helicopter unit took part in operations in Siachen (world’s highest battlefield) and commanded a Mi-17 squadron during the IPKF operations in Sri Lanka, rescue mission of 11 tourists stranded in cable car among others.

8) Jamshetji Tata:

Born on March 3, 1839, Jamshetji is known as the grandfather of modern Indian Industry thanks to his business acumen and entrepreneur skills. He established India’s trade relations with England, America, Europe, China, and Japan. A visionary in his own right, he had four goals in life – starting an iron and steel company, a world-class learning institution, a grand hotel and setting up a hydro-electric plant. Of them, he only succeeded in building the Taj Mahal Hotel at Colaba (1903) during his lifetime. At that time, Taj was the only hotel in India to have electricity.

9) Rustom KS Gandhi:

Wiki

Vice Admiral Rustom Khushro Shapoorjee Gandhi was not only a great soldier but also an able administrator. Born in 1924 in Jabalpur, Gandhi joined the Royal Navy with a permanent commission as an officer cadet on January 1, 1943. He has the distinction of being the only officer to have commanded ships in all naval wars fought by India. He played a decisive role in “Operation Vijay” of 1961 that saw the end of Portuguese rule in Goa. He was awarded Vir Chakra for his role in the 1971 Indo-Pak War. After his retirement, he served as the governor of Himachal Pradesh.

10) Feroze Gandhi:

Born into a Parsi family on September 12, 1912, in Bombay, Feroze was so inspired by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, that he changed the spelling of his surname from “Ghandy” to “Gandhi” after joining the Independence movement. Besides playing a key role in the freedom struggle, he is also said to be India’s first anti-corruption activist as he exposed the nexus between Congress government and business powerhouses. Feroze earned the title of ‘Giant Killer’ after he exposed how the then Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari helped business tycoon Haridas Mundhra to benefit from and manipulate stock markets.

11) Nanabhoy Palkhiwala:

Another stalwart of the Parsi community who was a prominent jurist and economist, he joined the bar in 1946 and quickly became famous as an eloquent and articulate barrister. Along with legendary Sir Jamshedji Behramji Kanga, he wrote The Law and Practice of Income Tax, which is still considered an authoritative work in commercial and tax law. He was one of the most ardent defenders of the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. When the Indira Gandhi government imposed import controls on newsprint in 1972 to stifle dissent, he argued in the Supreme Court that newsprint served more than just a general commodity.

12) SH Kapadia:

Another top legal luminary from Parsi community, Sarosh Homi Kapadia served as the thirty-eighth Chief Justice of India. He joined Bombay High court as an advocate in 1974. In 1991, he was appointed as an additional judge at Bombay High Court and in March 1993, he was appointed as a permanent judge. He became the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court in 2003 and soon was elevated as a judge of Supreme Court. He will perhaps be remembered for his most notable judgement that came in Vodfaone versus the Union of India, where he ruled that Indian revenue department did not have territorial jurisdiction to tax offshore transactions.

13) Soli Sorabjee:

Indian Express

The former Attorney-General of India and an eminent jurist, Soli Sorabjee is a strong proponent of civil liberties and protection of human rights. He was admitted to the bar in 1953 after completing his studies at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and Government Law College. He was designated as a senior Supreme Court lawyer in 1971. He also served as Solicitor-General of India from 1977 to 1980. At present, he is the Chairman of Transparency International and Convenor of the Minority Rights Group.

14) Ardeshir Godrej:

Ardeshir Godrej firmly believed that freedom would remain a distant dream until India becomes self-reliant. Despite hailing from an affluent family, Ardeshir did not approach his father for a loan and arranged it from elsewhere. He began his business by starting manufacturing locks on May 7, 1897, in Lalbaug. Gradually, he expanded his business interest from security engineering to soaps to typewriters to white goods. Godrej became a household name in India, notching up a majority of the market share.

15) Polly Umrigar:

YouTube

Born on March 28, 1926, in Maharashtra’s Sholapur, Pahlan Ratanji Umrigar was a legendary cricketer who played from the late forties to the early sixties. He had then held the record of the Indian player with most Tests, most runs and most hundreds. In fact, his records stood from 1962 to 1978, only to be broken by little master Sunil Gavaskar. Cricketers from the Parsi community dominated the Indian cricket scene in the 50s and 60s. Cricketers like Phiroze Edulji Palia, Rustomji Jamshedji, Rusitomji Sheriyar Modi, Keki Khurshedji Tarapore, Nariman Jamshedji Contractor are some of the notable names.

According to several accounts written by Parsis, the All India Women’s Conference wanted to pay homage to Cama during her birth centenary, and keep her memory alive in post-Independent India

Named after Bhikaiji Cama who was referred to as the “Mother of the Indian Revolution”, the Madame Cama Road stretches along the Mantralaya, the seat of the Maharashtra government, before meeting Marine Drive. Belonging to one of the most affluent Parsi families of Mumbai during the 1800s, Cama is credited with playing an important role in India’s Independence movement.

While details are scant about why this road was named after her, according to research scholar Nawaz Mody’s book ‘Parsis of Western India’, the road was named to honour Bhikaiji Cama during her birth centenary in 1961-62. According to several accounts written by Parsis, the All India Women’s Conference wanted to pay homage to Cama during her birth centenary, and keep her memory alive in post-Independent India. They urged the India government to take suitable steps to commemorate her memory. This led to the Greater Bombay Municipal Corporation naming a road after her and the government also issued a commemorative stamp on Republic Day in 1962.

But naming the road after Madame Cama came with its own set of challenges. “A query was raised in the corporation as to why the road was being named after a foreigner after Independence because of the use of Madame,” says Mody. Like much of her life, the naming of a road in Mumbai, the city of her birth, was not without its set of controversies, which now seem to have been put to rest with time.

According to Mody, while writing her book, she was looking at Parsi personalities who had been neglected. She was attracted by the story of Bhikaiji Sorab Patel. “She belonged to a very wealthy and distinguished family with her grandfather having been credited with setting up several educational institutes, like the Parsee Girls School Association. All her brothers were also highly educated, having got a Bachelors or Masters degree according to the Mumbai University records” said Mody.

“While she might not have got much credit for her work during her time, several things were named after her including the road in front of the Mantralaya. In 1997, the Indian Coast Guard also commissioned a Priyadarshini-class fast patrol vessel named the ICGS Bhikaji Cama,” she added.

Bhikaiji did not go to college, and she got married at 24, around 1885, which was unheard of during the time. “It was quite a late age for a Parsi woman to be getting married at that time. She got married to a solicitor Rustom Cama,” added Mody.

Her marriage, however, did not work out and she left her husband, never to return. “She soon got involved in the freedom struggle and was a strong advocate of violence initially, and then became a pacifist,” explained Mody.
She left for London in about 1902, where she worked for Dadabhai Naoroji, and then moved to Paris, where, with Munchersah Bujorji Godrej and Shyamji Krishna Verma, she founded the Paris India Society.

“She was involved in funding and publication of Bande Mataram and Talvar, which contained material against the British government. She was very good friends with Maud Gonne, an Irish revolutionary. Paris then was the centre of all revolutionaries and she met many of them from Russia, Egypt, Poland, and many other places. She funded much of the movement during this period,” said Mody.

But her real moment of glory came on August 1907. “In the International Socialist Conference, she unfurled a flag of independent India, which was not very different from the flag launched by Dadabhai Naoroji in Calcutta earlier,” said Mody.

“Her health, however, started deteriorating around 1935 and she decided to return home to Mumbai, after she gave a written undertaking that she would not participate in the revolution. By then, the male members of her family were all dead and she went straight to the BD Petit Parsee General Hospital. She had hardly any money left with her,” said Mody. She had bequeathed most of her personal assets to the then Avabai Bai Petit School in Bandra.

The Karachi harbour attack by a group of three small missile boats of the Indian Navy — stretched to their endurance limits and virtually unprotected against air strikes — was a turning point of the 1971 war with Pakistan.

The war, which led to the liberation of Bangladesh, was fought mostly over land but it was a decisive victory at sea that crippled Pakistan — drastically cutting down its ability to continue engaging Indian forces — by choking off resupply routes for oil and ammunition.

Within hours of the 4 December attack by three Osa 1 class missile boats that set Karachi port on fire and took out two frontline Pakistani Navy warships, besides sinking a merchant vessel carrying ammunition, the world stood up to attention.

The Karachi assault was part of the first item on US President Richard Nixon’s morning brief by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) the next day – a detailed view on the conflict and the naval blockade achieved by India.

Commanding one of the three missile boats armed with four SS-N-2B Styx anti-ship missiles each that unleashed fury on Karachi was Lieutenant Commander BN Kavina who was awarded the Vir Chakra (VrC) for Operation Trident, the code name for the attack.

His missile boat – the INS Nipat – sank merchant vessel Venus Challenger carrying ammunition and crippled her escort, PNS destroyer Shah Jehan on the approach to Karachi. While the others were called back fearing an air assault, Kavina took the Nipat to within 25 km of the Karachi shore, firing a missile to set off the Keamari oil terminal on fire.

On Friday, the hero of the Karachi attack passed away in Adelaide, Australia, where he was living with his son Karl. The officer, who died at the age of 80, got a fond farewell from the Indian Navy at the funeral ceremony Tuesday, with India’s naval attaché in Australia representing the country.

The Karachi attack is seen as the highest point for the Indian Navy post-Independence – 4 December is celebrated as Navy Day in India in honour of Operation Trident – and is recorded in internal history as a turning point of the war.

“The missile boats really did a fantastic job. In fact, there was an effective blockade of the Karachi port without India having really declared one. I remember that all ships and vessels passing through the area were taking permission from the Indian Navy to transit through,” Commodore Vijay Jerath (retd), another war hero and a batch mate of Kavina, told ThePrint.

Jerath, who wrote a tell-all book on the operation — 25 Missile Boat Squadron: An Untold Story – was also awarded the Vir Chakra for a follow on operation to Trident. Codenamed Op Python, it was a repeat attack by the missile boats on Karachi on 8 December, that further crippled Pakistani naval abilities.

While the Karachi attack and its impact on blocking supplies to Pakistan – Karachi was its only big operational port in 1971 – has been well documented in Indian military studies, a recently declassified top secret CIA report reveals how difficult the situation was.

The secret CIA report – the agency had a significant presence in Pakistan – details dangers Pakistan faced due to the Indian blockade. The declassified intelligence memorandum on `West Pakistan: Resupply Problems’ was marked for release in 2010 but was made public in December 2016 under a new disclosure initiative by the CIA.

Painting a sordid picture for Pakistan, the CIA predicted that its war machinery would come to a grinding halt within weeks as oil and ammunition resupplies had been choked due to the blockade. Pointing out that both land and air routes were unviable to support Pakistan’s war effort, the CIA report warned of impending doom.

At the core of the CIA analysis was effective Indian stranglehold over Karachi that had crippled all merchant ship traffic to Pakistan. The American assessment was that while Pakistan had the foreign exchange reserves for emergency purchase of supplies for the war, it had no way to get them to its troops.

The situation on petroleum was even worse for Pakistan with the CIA assessment that stocks were running dangerously low with most its facilities located in Karachi under threat.

The assessment painted a sorry picture for Pakistan when it came to ammunition reserves as well.

The CIA document has been declassified but is also heavily redacted, making it unclear whether it was intended for possible intervention by the US or was an assessment for advice to Pakistan. The CIA assessment hinted that the only way out for Pakistan was to attempt a break of the Indian grip on Karachi.

Incidentally, the lowest point in India-US relations also came in December 1971 when a task force led by the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier entered the Bay of Bengal. The US tilt towards Pakistan has also been documented in previous declassified records that revealed Nixon asking his trusted aide Henry Kissinger to call on the Chinese to deploy troops on the Indian border.

The situation for US involvement in the lifting of the Karachi blockade however never arose with the 16 December fall of Dhaka and the liberation of Bangladesh. And in India, 4 December was designated as Navy Day, in honour of Op Trident and men like Lt Cdr Kavina who led it.

Commemorating 100 years of the death of Dadabhai Naoroji — observed on 30 June — we take stock of a collection of letters the Grand Old Man of India exchanged with his contemporaries

“…It is a mistake his not giving his Parsee names at large. I took him for an Englishman until I saw he was K.D Cooper…I always denounce this as a snobby defamation of their medical degrees & diplomas; & I dont [sic] like to see Parsees screening their noble nationality behind the English masks of ‘Cooper’ — ‘Ashburner’ &c…A Wadia I understand is trying to name himself Wady!!!”

This is an excerpt from a letter written by George Birdwood (1832-1917) on 27 February 1904 from London, addressed to one of the early influential nationalists and a prominent figure in the formation of the Indian National Congress, Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917), expressing his disdain at the Parsi implementation of anglicised surnames. The aforementioned K.D. Cooper was a Parsi doctor and a resident medical officer at a hospital in Bradford between 1903 and 1904, and had requested Naoroji to seek Birdwood’s aid in applying for a job at the East Indian Railway Company. The letter is part of the book titled Dadabhai Naoroji: Selected Private Papers (Oxford University Press), published last year — a selection of correspondence between Naoroji and several seminal leaders and intellectuals — edited by S.R Mehrotra and Dinyar Patel. The annotated compilation not only throws light upon facets of Naoroji’s life, but also lends insights into the thoughts and preoccupations of his correspondents and confidantes, and their relationship with Naoroji.

Matters of intrigue

Birdwood, for instance, even opposed the fact that Indians had embraced a ‘Western’ style of dressing. An English civil servant, he resided in Bombay in the 1850s and ‘60s, and during his stay in the city, was appointed as a professor at the Grant Medical College; played a key role in the establishment of the Victoria Gardens and the Victoria and Albert Museum [currently Jijamata Udyan and the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum respectively]; was the registrar at the University of Bombay; and a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. While his friendship with Naoroji spanned almost six decades, it wasn’t without its share of differences, and the letters exchanged between them are a veritable indication of this fact.

A steadfast and unwavering Conservative, Birdwood, contested Naoroji’s arguments about his theory on the ‘drain of wealth’ from India, and was displeased at the establishment of semi-representative Indian political institutions. Nevertheless, Birdwood contributed immensely to the social and intellectual life of Bombay. One of his letters to Naoroji in 1898 makes mention of his unfinished manuscript on Indian art, tentatively titled Arya Silpa Darpana [or ‘The Mirror of Indian Art’], of which he had already written “1200 pages of foolscap MS”. Birdwood was also invited by the London-based Zoroastrian Fund of Europe in 1901 to deliver a commemorative lecture on the history of Zoroastrianism at the Parsi cemetery in suburban Brookwood, an otherwise uncommon honour from the community. Besides letters exchanged with Birdwood, the book reproduces Naoroji’s written communication with some of his contemporaries such as Henry M. Hyndman, Allan Octavian Hume, Erskine Perry, Behramji Malabari, R.M.H Griffith, William Wedderburn, and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, among others.

Reconstructing lost histories

The missives published in this book are however only a soupçon of an exhaustive cache of approximately 25-30,000 letters. Says Patel, assistant professor of history at the University of South Carolina, who has also completed his dissertation of the political thought and career of Naoroji, “The kernel of this volume comes from an unpublished manuscript that R.P Patwardhan [a retired educationalist from Pune] left behind in 1980 when he died. There is another unpublished volume, which we’ll be using as a starting point for a second volume, and I anticipate that at least one further volume can be easily completed with the material collected.” Patwardhan studied Naoroji’s correspondence for close to a decade and published two compilations in 1977, but passed away before he could have two more manuscripts published.

While most of the letters are in English, there is a sizeable number in Gujarati, and a handful in languages like Marathi, Urdu, Hindi, Persian, French, and Bengali. Patel says, “Since the Naoroji Papers are so vast and relatively unexplored, and since thousands of letters have not been catalogued, I still stumble upon interesting finds every time I search. Last August, for example, I was at the National Archives of India [in New Delhi], and found a letter from the 1890s where one of Naoroji’s daughters was talking about how riding bicycles was catching on in Bombay, among both men and women, and among both Hindus and Parsis. She mentioned that she was getting lessons from her husband, who would help her practise in the lanes of Khetwadi after dinner, and told Naoroji not to be worried about her safety!”

Naoroji considered Robert Morgan Holt Griffith — the proprietor of the Weekly News and Clerkenwell Chronicle published from north London — as ‘one of my best friends and supporters’, especially during his election campaigns for standing for Parliament from Central Finsbury, London. Griffith served as Naoroji’s trustworthy election agent in 1892 and 1895, and their correspondence, amounting to around 2,000 letters, is probably the largest collection in the Naoroji Papers.

An augmented repository

The Naoroji Papers have been housed in the National Archives of India (NAI), and apart from correspondence on weighty issues, also include miscellanea such as a hand-drawn map providing directions to Naoroji’s house in Anerley Park in London; Parsi wedding invitations and Navroze greeting cards; floor plans for the family house in Bombay; a map of the Buenos Aires tram network; and several newspaper cuttings and drafts of speeches.

All of the letters, however, were at one point, kept in Bombay — in Versova [present-day Seven Bungalows] at Naoroji’s house during his retirement, or perhaps in a godown somewhere in the city thereafter, as property of the Dadabhai Naoroji Prize Trust. Patel began working at the NAI with the intention of not only researching the Naoroji Papers but also evaluating them from the perspective of preservation, and providing any help that he could in identifying material that needed repair. “After Patwardhan was done working with them in Pune, he arranged for them to be sent to the NAI in Delhi. It is probably best that they were sent to Delhi, because they were kept much better than they would have at any facility in Bombay. Runs of numerous non-English newspapers simply do not exist anymore. Bombay is still in need of a proper, enclosed, temperature-controlled archival facility which uses archival best practices,” says Patel.

Deciphering the written word

In 1854, while still in his late-twenties, Naoroji became a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Bombay’s Elphinstone College, the first Indian to attain such a position. An enthusiastic pedagogue, he made great efforts to inculcate within his students a sense of curiosity by organising visits to the docks as well as the observatory that once operated in present-day Colaba. His role as a tutor can perhaps be extended to comprehend his style of writing. The letters he drafted were infused with unique characteristics, and provide a glimpse into his preference of syntax. “Naoroji’s English handwriting was not too bad, actually; it was relatively easy to pick up, though his Gujarati handwriting still eludes me in places. His Hindi writing was impeccable. But others, such as Malabari or Birdwood, were extremely difficult to decipher! Both, quite obviously, wrote letters in great haste. On more than one instance, Naoroji or Wedderburn would complain about not being able to read Malabari’s handwriting. Naoroji wrote in the typical late 19th century-style of English (some words would be capitalised, which we would not today, such as “Election,” or “Campaign”; frequent abbreviations of first names, such as “Wm” for “William”; people were referred to very formally, so George Birdwood was always “Sir George” and William Wedderburn “Sir William”, in spite of the fact that they were very close friends) but there were a few common spelling eccentricities. He always signed off as “Your’s truly”, for example,” shares Patel.

Letters that Naoroji wrote himself were very brief and succinct, and came across as rather formulaic. This, according to Patel, is perhaps a hint of how busy he was. “Naoroji kept to a standard format and wrote as briefly as possible. His letters were not meant to be eloquent, quotable documents, such as Nehru’s — he simply wanted to get his point across. Even Dinshaw Wacha, one of Naoroji’s closest confidantes, acknowledged that he could only expect one brief letter from Naoroji in response to several long outward letters,” he adds.

However, there were a few exceptions “His letters to Malabari are very personal (Malabari referred to Naoroji as “Dad”), since Malabari was not only a working colleague, but someone who was close to Naoroji’s children and helped look after their affairs while Naoroji was in London. Naoroji was a fixture in the letter-writing room of the National Liberal Club in London — he probably wrote a few thousands of pages here (when I visited in 2013, I couldn’t resist writing off a few letters from the same room, using the same stationery with the same letterhead),” explains Patel.

Epistolary relevance

The ‘epistolary’ as a literary form plays a vital role to help understand the construction of academic and historical research. According to Patel, numerous historians that had previously looked at Naoroji’s life only examined a few of his published works, and thus painted a very incomplete portrait of the man and his ideas. Strangely, they did not seek out his private papers. Many Indian/South Asian historians are especially guilty of relying too much on theory and too little on actual archival evidence, especially personal correspondence.

As Patel puts it, “Much of the theory-driven scholarship on early Indian nationalism, or the Anglophone Indian political and economic elite, falls to pieces once one actually reads Indians’ private correspondence rather than selective reading of a handful of their English-language publications. Certain archival collections in India — again, especially the case for personal papers — are strangely neglected. We need more historians to take these collections seriously; there is a lot of exciting, unexplored material that helps add to, and even change, our narrative of how Indians responded to colonialism.”

Dhunmai Dalal was a long time resident of Southern California and had held various positions and roles at the Zoroastrian Association of California and at FEZANA, besides being Co-Chair of two North American Congresses, in 1985 and in 2014.

FEZANA joins Zarathushtis all over the world in offering condolences to the Dalal family.

Uthamnu will be at 3:40 pm 5th July, 2017 Followed by Sarosh at 8:00 pm

May Almighty Ahura Mazda keep her soul in Eternal Peace.

O B I T U A R Y

By Meher Amalsad

DhunMai Dalal, a stalwart philanthropist from California was passionate about serving humanity with dignity and humility.

She has served our North American and Global Zoroastrian community in numerous roles over the last three decades.

Her prime purpose in life was focused on how to keep us united as a community through the bond of our Zoroastrian faith.

She served with passion as the Chair of the 1985 5th North American Zoroastrian Congress in Los Angeles. Her motto for this Congress was: We can have disagreements without becoming disagreeable.

At this monumental Congress, she along with Farangis Shahrokh placed on the Congress agenda a session titled: Proposal For The Organization Of A North American Zoroastrian Body. This session fostered the stepping stone for the birth of FEZANA.

She also served as Co-Chair of the 2014 17th North American Zoroastrian Congress in Los Angeles which was a very successful event for our Zoroastrian community.

As a founding participant of FEZANA, Dhunnai served as the first Chair of the FEZANA Congress Committee with a vision to ignite and unite the spirit of communal solidarity through North American Congresses.

She was also actively involved in the birth of California Zoroastrian Center in Westminster, California and as a strong supporter of the Zoroastrian Association Of California. She was one of the major donors for the ZAC Center in Orange, California.

She has also served as the Trustee and Director of World Zoroastrian Organization in London.

She was an avid supporter and promoter of youth leadership within our Zoroastrian community and has been a valuable financial sponsor for numerous North American and World Zoroastrian Youth congresses since 1987.

She was also involved with many Non profit organizations including the American Youth Symphony for which she served as a Director from 2011-2014.

DhunMai has left a legacy of selfless service for our future generation to emulate with communal pride.

Our hats off to her for this relentless dedication with conscientious intention for reaching out to others.

May Ahura Mazda grant her soul with everlasting peace as she now enjoys eternal life in the spiritual world.